IOC Sanctions Three More Bobsled and Skeleton Athletes

From the home office in Durham, USA

(Nov. 27, 2017) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced further sanctions involving competitors in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

Jump to IOC text of decisions

Sergei Chudinov, who had finished fifth in men’s skeleton, has been disqualified from the 2014 Olympic skeleton program, and banned from all further Olympics. In addition to Chudinov, two push athletes from Alexander Zubkov’s four-man sled, Dmitry Trunenkov and Alexey Negodaylo, have been disqualified from the 2014 Games and banned from all further Olympics.

The penalties mirror those handed down to Zubkov, Alexander Tretiakov, Olga Polynitsina, Maria Orlova, and Elena Nikitina, all of whom were banned in the weeks leading up to today’s announcement. As with those previously banned, a full ruling will be released at a later date.

Hearings were set up after the WADA’s McLaren Report laid out in great detail the Russian doping program as it pertained to the 2014 Games. Using that information, the IOC Disciplinary Commission began investigating doping charges on an athlete-by-athlete basis.

Through Oswald Commission (headed by Disciplinary Commission chief Denis Oswald), the IOC has determined that all four athletes were “found to have committed anti-doping rule violations pursuant to Article 2 of The International Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Rules” as they applied to the Winter Games in Sochi. With that, both Tretiakov and Nikitina have had their medals stripped by the IOC.

As in the previous rulings, the IBSF has been charged by the IOC to modify the event results to reflect the disqualifications. If/when athletes are re-ranked based on disqualifications, this is how athletes will likely rank:

Full IOC Decisions in PDF form below:
IOC Decision on Sergei Chudinov
IOC Decision on Dmitry Trunenkov
IOC Decision on Alexey Negodaylo